Cold weather conditions promote buildup of ice on vehicle surfaces. To remove the ice, large amounts of chemicals are often sprayed onto the ice to promote melting. Additionally or alternatively, electrical heating of vehicle surfaces to melt the ice involves a large energy consumption to promote sufficient de-icing. The large amounts of chemicals and/or energy consumption are each a cost burden on a user of the vehicle.
De-icing is particularly challenging for wings and airfoils, such as rotor blades, of rotorcraft vehicles, such as helicopters. De-icing may be implemented to aircraft and rotorcraft via an electrothermal ice protection system.
The electrothermal ice protection system includes heaters installed within the composite structure of the blade. For de-icing processes, the goal of the heaters is to quickly elevate the temperature of the ice/rotor interface above 32° F. A temperature greater than 50° F. is usually sought. The heating process only melts the interface of the ice, allowing centrifugal force of rotating blades to remove the ice from the surface.
The heaters are installed within the blades of the rotorcraft as a separate system. The electrothermal ice protection system comprises a power generator to apply electrical energy to one or more components of the rotor blade. Depending on rotor blade structure, power densities of about 25 Watts per square inch (WSI) are generated to achieve the required surface temperatures with minimum power-on times. Such power densities place a large demand on the rotorcraft electrical system.
Further, the heaters installed deep within the composite structure of the blade. As a result, a large amount of energy is used so as to generate a sufficient amount of heat that reaches the surface of the blade and melt the ice. Further, the configuration of the heaters being disposed deep within the blade renders the heaters difficult to reach and perform repair or maintenance operations thereon.
Also, the heaters are installed within the spar during manufacturing of the blade. The blade spar manufacturing process exposes the de-icing heaters and components to an elevated cure temperature. Thus, to protect the de-icing heaters and components, the cure temperature may be limited to a low temperature (e.g. 250° F.) or the de-icing heaters and components are made of materials that can withstand high cure temperature, thereby complicating the manufacturing process or increase cost of the rotorcraft.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.